Stephen Colbert taped his first show from Baghdad yesterday, allowing General Ray Odierno to shave his head, declaring victory and not watering his act down in some insincere effort at sincerity. [NY Times]

Sarah Palin, while introducing professional conservative Michael Reagan at an event in Alaska, may have paraphrased from a paper written by Newt Gingrich about Ronald Reagan, according to Geoffrey Dunn (who is writing what everyone expects will be an unflattering book about the Alaska Governor). Her lawyers say — correctly — that she actually cited the paper when giving the speech, and some day we'll all realize that specious attacks against Palin sap credibility from the good ones. [CBS, Huffington Post]

Newt Gingrich isn't calling Judge Sonia Sotomayor a "racist" anymore. He's decided that he'll get in less trouble by just implying she's a racist because the actual racists in America will understand his code. Unfortunately for Newt, so do the rest of us. [Politico]

He then completed his 180 degree flip-flop by stating that Republicans should "shrug off" ideological purists, by which he means "other ideological purists." [Politico]

Former First Lady Laura Bush likes Sotomayor, so Rush Limbaugh is preparing a full-throated takedown of her for being uppity and speaking out of turn. Or not. [Associated Press]

She now says Obama has passed her "3 a.m." test, and admitted she initially turned down the role of Secretary of State but changed her mind after Obama kept after her. He's one charming motherfucker. [CNN]